We had the best Christmas ever!  Having a three year old makes Christmas magical!  It's as if I am a kid again (and I want her to get ALL the Barbies possible!).  

This year we spent a good solid month being festive.  Juliette helped my decorate the trees (Juliette's tree & Mommy's tree...no tree for Daddy). We saw Santa at the Jacksonville Zoo.  We made cranberry cookies from the recipe on the back of the book called "Cranberry Christmas".  We made salt ornaments for the tree.  We listened to LOTS of Christmas music.  Juliette sang "Jingle Bells" a gazillion of times.

Juliette wouldn't nap on Christmas Eve due to all of her excitment for the next day.  I spent the day painting the kitchen and prepping for Aunt Jenny to tile our new back splash.  Juliette spent the day running around the house like a lunatic and watching Christmas movies.  We did put out some homemade chocolate chip walnut cookies, chocolate milk (cause Santa likes CHOCOLATE milk Mommy) and some carrots for the reindeer that night.

On Christmas Day, Josh & I patiently waited for Juliette to wake up.  And of course she slept until later than normal!  She woke up and walked out to see her goodies...and all we heard was "MOM! DAD! MOMMY! DADDY!"  So we got up from bed to see a super excited little girl.  Santa was good to her and brought her everything that was on her list.  She got her Paw Patrol Airplane, her new Dory Watch, Princess Ariel, inside trampoline, American Girl Bitty Baby, and more!  I made some homemade cinnamon rolls (for the first AND last time ever) for breakfast.  They took me a solid FOUR hours to make.  Later in the day, we went to see the movie "Sing" since Juliette has been talking about it for a while now.  Afterwards, we drove around and saw some Christmas lights and grabbed some takeout sushi/Thai food.  A great day was had by all!  

And the next day, Juliette said to me..."I do that again!" 

Juliette has been asking about seeing Santa for a few weeks now.  She is definitely in the Christmas spirit!  She helped decorate the tree (and redecorates on a daily basis).  She helped bake cookies.  She loves finding her Elf, Elfette, each morning.  She sings "Jingle Bells".  She is feeling it.

So I told her earlier in the day that we were going to see Santa.  When it came time to leave, we pilled into the car and I asked her "Juliette, where are we going?"  "To the North Pole to see Santa" she replied.  Duh, of course we were going to see Santa at the North Pole.  I guess the North Pole is just a short drive away from St. Augustine, FL!  In this case, the North Pole was the Jacksonville Zoo and their annual Zoolights. She was super excited to see Santa.  She ran right on up to him and started chatting away.  She asked him for the Paw Patrol airplace, Princess Ariel and a watch,  I have a feeling the big guy will be coming through on those wishes!

It had been a while since I had my friend Meghan of Meghan Vail Photography take some beautiful pictures of Juliette.  It was time.  We headed to Crescent Beach (just south of St. Augustine) to meet Meghan for a sunrise session in early August.  I've been waiting these past few months to share all these fabulous pictures.  I love all of them!  Here she is in all her splendor :)